


The Catch

by Bouzingo



Category: Marvel
Genre: And jaded bb Natasha Romanov, By which i mean bb agent Maria Hill, F/F, Love at First Sight, Origins, SHIELD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-30
Updated: 2014-12-30
Packaged: 2018-03-04 07:12:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2959676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bouzingo/pseuds/Bouzingo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Maria's been transferred to the Department of Espionage in SHIELD. Anything she wants, Fury's going to give it to her. But there's a catch.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Catch

Maria isn’t one for dating because she is busy with her work. She doesn’t really meet people outside of her work, except when the world’s in danger and then she meets far too many new people at once.

Plus, she reasons with herself while she works the elliptical a bit harder (hour-long lunch break, putting a workout there is much more efficient than pretending it takes an hour to eat a sandwich), dating in the workplace is never advisable and she’s never taken herself as one for romance.

And then she’s transferred from internal affairs to espionage. Commander Fury calls her to his office. He has her not insignificant file spread out in front of him.

“Agent Hill,” he says. “I’ve had my eye on you for a while now.”

“Sir,” Maria says, straightening her gait. She doesn’t laugh. Quartermain in filing had said, ‘he’s going to make jokes about his eye. They aren’t funny and you’re not supposed to laugh, so don’t.’ Quartermain’s a good man.

“Prompt, efficient, and you have a military work ethic even though we hired you out of high school,” Fury says, glancing at the file he clearly knows inside and out. “People of your caliber are hard to find. Harder to keep. Do you know why?”

“Because we get dissatisfied, sir,” Maria says immediately. Quartermain had made her promise no bullshit. Fury laughs.

“That’s exactly right. You put in the work when we ask, but then the side projects you take up turn out to be better prospects, and you leave. You got any side projects, Hill?”

“No sir. Right now it’s just SHIELD,” Maria says. She figures Fury doesn’t want to hear about her exercise regimen or her cooking blog.

“No boyfriend? Girlfriend?” Fury asks.

“Hasn’t come up, sir,” Maria says.

“And how would you like to see the world?”

“They asked me that at the recruitment centre, Commander,” Maria says, “opted for internal affairs at SHIELD instead of roasting in a tank for the military.”

“No tanks. Only sight-seeing. With an objective,” Fury says, and pulls out some files. “Take your pick. Someone of your capabilities is highly desired for any one of these. Any questions?”

“What’s the catch?” Maria asks. “This is almost… this _is_ way too good to be true.”

Fury pushes a button his desk.

“Send in Romanov,” he says. Maria’s eyes widen and about a million thoughts go through her head. But then Natasha Romanov comes in and Maria’s stomach flops because she’s fallen in love for the first time in her short life. “Agent Hill, meet your new partner.”

_Oh no._

* * *

 

“Oh no,” Quartermain says. “And then what?”

“And then I chose the mission. We’re going to Madrid on Wednesday,” Maria says. “And I don’t think she likes me at all.”

“Well, yeah. You’re not Barton,” Quartermain says, loosely shrugging.

“Oh, so she and Barton are…” Maria says. Her face falls despite trying to look coolly disinterested.

“Aw, fuck no. Barton’s her favourite because he pushed for her political asylum when she came here. Apart from him and Fury, she pretty much hates everyone here. That’s why they call her the Black Widow. She chews her partners up and then spits ‘em out.”

“Fury gave me this assignment because he thought I could do it,” Maria says. “So I will.”

“Yeah but I don’t think that Fury was planning on you getting twitterpated the first time you and Romanov were in a room together.”

“Twitterpated?” Hill says, and Quartermain sighs.

“Watch a movie now and again Hill,” he says. “The fact is unless Fury is on God’s level of matchmaking he can’t have anticipated that you’d fall in love at first sight. You’re boned.”

* * *

 

“Aw,” Clint says sympathetically. “She sounds terrible.”

“Career-grasping greenhorn from internal affairs.” Natasha mutters, while the peroxide burns on her head. She can’t even get into the weird caramel corn that Clint has concocted. “She looked at me like I killed her family.”

“I really want to hate her, Tasha, but you are really bad at reading expressions when it’s not life or death,” Clint says. Natasha pouts and stuffs some popcorn in her mouth. “Let’s watch _Pretty in Pink_. Don’t you like Molly Ringwald?”

“I don’t see why I can’t do this mission with you,” Natasha says. “We’re good in the field.”

“We’re getting a reputation we’re so good,” Clint says. “People are expecting us as a unit.”

Natasha pouts and grabs a handful of caramel corn.

“Think it’ll be good for you,” Clint says. “At least try to be nice to her. Fury thinks she can handle you.”

“Nobody _handles_ me,” Natasha says. “I’m a delight.”

“Okay,” Clint says with a shit-eating grin, and gets a face full of caramel corn for his trouble.

Natasha turns back to the movie, eating her caramel corn. Very seriously she thinks about the meeting that she had with Agent Hill. She dare not call her Maria, because these unfamiliar, fluttery feelings in her belly are only exacerbated when she thinks of Agent Hill’s given name.

She doesn’t know how she’s going to do a mission with Agent Hill and keep it professional. Maybe she’ll opt for icy condescension.

* * *

 

“I bet you have a lot of questions,” Natasha says, putting her carryon under her seat. Her hair is blonde and has a gentle curl, and she’s wearing round-framed glasses. “I’m not going to answer any of them.”

“Okay,” Maria says, and pulls her book from her purse. Natasha watches impassively, then looks out the window.

“This is your first time out, right?” Natasha finally says. Maria nods, and Natasha rolls her eyes.

“I can do it,” Maria says.

“I didn’t say that you couldn’t,” Natasha says, and takes off her glasses. “I have a certain way of operating, Miss Kirby.”

“As do I, Miss Steranko,” Maria says levelly. She drilled herself on their names and backstories while doing her evening run last night. Her secondary objective after completing the mission is impressing Natasha Romanov. Natasha’s lips quirk in what is almost definitely a smile, and she looks out the window again.

* * *

 

“This feels like a heist,” Maria says into her comm, and is treated to dead air before she remembers. “Over.”

“It’s not a heist, and every time you say that you risk blowing your cover,” Natasha says. “Get out of the bathroom and charm that diplomat while I do the heavy lifting. You’ve already prettied up as much as you can. Over.”

“Are you saying I’m pretty, over?” Maria asks as she leaves.

“I’m saying you’re pretty annoying. I’ll radio you when we’re good to leave, over,” Natasha says, a note of something in her voice Maria dare not mistake for fondness.

And later, when they’re running from hitmen and angry diplomats in heels, Maria’s laughing and Natasha is definitely smiling. They lose their pursuers in the middle of the city, shoeless and red-nosed from the chill.

“I know a place,” Natasha says. “Great spot to lay low until extractions. Awesome food.”

“I like you,” Maria says with a deep breath over a couple of microbrews, “A lot.”

“You’ve known me for eight hours,” Natasha says, eyebrows rising, “tops.”

“I pride myself on knowing people,” Maria says. “I worked in internal affairs and I had to find double agents and sleepers. I’ve been doing that since I graduated high school. And when you walked into Fury’s office, I knew two things about you right away.”

“What were those?”

“You are totally trustworthy,” Maria says. “And I am ninety percent certain that if I have to fall in love, you are the right person.”

“I didn’t take you for ridiculous,” Natasha says. Maria’s face must fall, because she follows it with a gentle, “I like that.”

They make plans for a date after extraction, and going to the extraction point, Maria feels like she’s walking on air.

Somewhere, Nick Fury is smiling.


End file.
